memorable moment: Mondy staring at Aifin after about 10 minutes intense conversation about iPad sleeves and suddenly announcing, “Hang on, are you THE PRODUCER?”

many other memorable moments: Alex, expecting to be completely anonymous at this con, being faced by various people saying “are you ALEX FROM MELBOURNE?”

drink of the convention: the purple daiquiris at the Voyager 15 party.

frocks of the convention: Alex, Alisa & Terri at the Hugos.

book of the convention: THE LITTLE PINK ONE.

You can find a video here of Tony C Smith’s live broadcast of his reaction to the Hugo awards. About 40 mins in, he finds out he won the Best Fanzine for Starship Sofa and explodes with joy. It’s also a nice little visual of what it’s like to be following award ceremonies (as I usually am) via the internet.

Blindmouse’s con report (including a well thought out response to my disastrous female superhero panel)
Random Tangent has some great, detailed reports about panels attended. My favourite of course is Day 3 which refers to my feminism in fantasy panel!
Megan with glorious enthusiasm about her first ever lit panel.
Catherynne Valente documents how it feels to lose a Hugo.
Gary Kemble has gathered some links.
Voyager on the inaugural winner of the Norma K Hemming Award (THE NORMA!!!), Maria Quinn.

Tehani’s con report.
Flinthart’s con report
Mondy on life after Worldcon.

Sunday was Father’s Day! No sleep in or cooked breakfast for my sweetie, though. He did receive a school-made card from Daughter #1 and a gift card for the apps store from me (very appropriate as the iPad had become our complete lifeline over the trip, as entertainment, internet connectivity and a social networking tool. I want my owwwwwn.

My one panel for the day was one I had been super excited about – The Case for the Female Doctor. Not only did I get to sit next to Paul Cornell, but the really cool thing was that all of the panellists except the moderator were completely in love with the idea of a female Doctor, and thus the discussion moved quickly belong ’should we’ to ‘how should we’. Discussion points ranged through the age of the Doctor, whether a female Doctor would *have* to be older to convey confidence and dignity, or conversely *have* to be younger to count as ‘now’ and ’sexy’ from the production POV. We also discussed the readiness of fans and the media to accept a female Doctor, and the different ways in which gender might affect the show. I was particularly delighted that almost all of the arguments about things that might change were met with a heartfelt ‘yes, wouldn’t that be great’! Mostly by me, admittedly

So yes, it was a great panel and completely buzzy to be part of it. I’ve been meaning to send Grant Watson a heartfelt THANK YOU by email for putting me on it, but what the hell, better to do it on public. Being on a Doctor Who panel at a convention is one of those things I have always wanted to do in my life, and this far exceeded any expectations. Grant did some fantastic work with devising programme items, many of which had great female-centric or feminist themes, and I think it’s worth a particular shout out because in my experience, often the media items are the ones most likely to end up with all male panels, or unimaginative takes on the material. Not so this year!

From a ‘mama writer at the con’ point of view, it’s worth noting that I had Raeli sitting up front with me, right in front of the table. Paul Cornell managed to frighten her by suggesting that she touch the inflatable daleks who visited us, to prove they weren’t real, but she had come to terms with them by the end of it and announced that they really were just like the bananas. Mostly I kept her busy with sweets from the table while she worked in her activity book (anonymous sketch artist who presented the panellists each with a caricature from the panel – thank you for including Raeli in this! it’s adorable!). At one point she whispered that she wanted to ask a question and I am ashamed to say I wouldn’t let her – afterwards I checked what she would have said and her question was “why are you talking about a female doctor?” which to be fair wouldn’t have added much to the conversation.

I told her why we were discussing it and asked her if she thought the Doctor could be a woman and her response was “hee hee, that’s silly.” Good thing I didn’t let her contribute!!!

After that, I got to be an audience member for the rest of the day which was a little startling to get used to. I managed to get to Alisa’s panel on the history of women in Australian spec fic which I really enjoyed – Helen Merrick, Lucy Sussex and Gina Goddard are all great speakers too, and I love to hear about the history of women in spec fic and fandom. Something which really hit home was when Gina mentioned that Gynaecon came about because the last Aussiecon, 11 years ago (when I had been part of the congoing community for only a little over a year) only had one panel on women, imaginatively titled “women in SF”. Yes, this is exactly the same sort of thing that led to the creation of Wiscon back in the 70’s. How far we have come in the last decade, in Australia, anyway!

Alex and I had fun noodling around with notes to each other during the panel. Among other things, we planned a retake of the female superheroes panel at the next Swancon, plus a Galactic Suburbia panel, and we then decided that she, I and Alisa (plus as many other Australian peeps as we could gather) would definitely be DOING WISCON some time in the next 5 years. We discussed this later and decided if Alisa has babies any time soon, we might be willing to stretch it to 10. The important thing, obviously, is to all go at once, just as Helen, Tess and their buddies did some years ago. And to not go until Galactic Suburbia is famous enough that we can get ourselves on the programme

I hurried straight from that panel to THE EVENT of the convention. Keep your Ditmars and your Hugos. This was a freaking live episode of BOXCUTTERS which happened to be themed around Doctor Who, so my head pretty much exploded with happiness. A huge thank you to Mondy who spotted me sitting towards the back and pointed out where Alisa and Terri were sitting. “You have to be with the Krasnostein!” Yes, I really did. It would not have been nearly as awesome without getting to sit with my fellow MASSIVE BOXCUTTERS fans.

Rob Shearman and Paul Cornell were very funny and interesting, but I have to admit (sorry, guys) I was mostly there to see Josh and John at work in person. Neither of them are nearly as awesome as Nelly, obviously, but you can’t have everything. The audience reactions and applause completely went to their heads, which only made the whole thing more amusing. The interview-panel ranged all over the place in topics, and was so much fun. I was particularly touched by the description of what it was like to be part of the team who brought back Doctor Who, and how frightened they were at being the ones to screw it up. The buzz in the room was electric, and when it was over we ran forward in our Hugo frocks (Terri and Alisa were in BALLGOWNS) to meet Josh Kinal. I was late to dinner with my publishers thanks to that, but it was so worth it. Voices attached to real people! Who knew? Also, I am totally going to buy a Boxcutters t-shirt. Yes, I am that much of a fangirl.

After that I raced down to the HarperCollins dinner, and it’s a sign of how little I had been participating in evening shenanigans at the bar that it took me about three laps of the damn place to find the restaurant. I got away late again to the Hugos, and thus missed out on sitting with fellow Galactic Suburbanites Alisa and Alex, who had been living it up at the Orbit party and while I spotted them from the light of their phones, I couldn’t get to them. Kathryn & her sweetie had come in late too though and I joined them which was nice because we had barely got to catch up through the whole convention! We were thus able to squee, snark and shout out extra WOOs throughout the whole ceremony.

I have never regretted more not being able to tweet at this con! K more than made up for it, though.

We’ve done a GS special on the Hugos but suffice to say, I was over the moon to see Tony C Smith win Best Fanzine for Starship Sofa. YAY PODCASTS. Also it was lovely to hear Helen & Jonathan get the home town WOOHOO when their nomination was read, even if they didn’t ultimately win. Sadly this was my only glimpse of Campbell award winning Seanan McGuire, whom I had been hoping to meet at the con. Oh, and so many frocks and tuxedos. Very important!

As part of our theme of laidback evening partying rather than stalking famous authors in bars at 4am, our gang went back to the apartment to hang out with Tehani, who had stayed home with baby Max, and debrief. Partly our lack of crazy partying was an effect of staying a bit of a distance from the con – and in my case, not really wanting to be too far from the baby in the late evenings. Hanging out in Tehani’s apartment meant I was a 30 second lift ride away from Jem if I got the call to say she had woken up, and no fuss about taxis back. Also the early-ish nights made for far more fun days.

Monday was the LAST day of the con, and that’s always a bit of a mixed bag, with everyone all distracted with packing up and early flights, so that even those of us who were sensible enough to stay an extra night or two end up feeling like we’re about to flit at any moment. This day was memorable for Raeli discovering 209 aka the Lego Room, and yet another horde of little girls to play with. Seriously, the child-friendly nature of this convention was extraordinary, and while having my girls there did compromise me in many varying ways, I never felt as if I or they were in the way, bothering people, etc. It made a huge difference to my ability to enjoy the con, and I really noticed and appreciated how many other people had babies/children there, and just took care of them discreetly, provided them with activities, took them out when they fussed, but basically integrated them into the event. It’s a brave new world, people.

And yes this does tie back again to the women in Australian SF history panel, and what Gina in particular was saying about women who left fandom when they had their children, either because it was too difficult to play or because they were actively squeezed out by people who made them feel unwelcome. BRAVE NEW FUCKING WORLD, PEOPLE. I know that it’s too easy to say that these problems are done and behind us now, but this is one con where I really felt that being female and a mother did not push me into some outer circle, and that is a beautiful thing. It didn’t hurt that the convention centre was really nicely set up with a good childcare space (also handy for changing into Ditmar/Hugo frocks) and enough rooms that one could be set aside for kids stuff. The fan lounge was also open, airy and somewhere you could collapse with kids, without feeling like you were dragging them into some kind of seedy cave. In fact, the entire con centre was lacking in seedy caves. So cheers for that.

On Monday we decided to split our parental resources, as I wasn’t needed on a panel until after lunch. It meant I was able to take Jem in to chat with people in cafes, while @aifin and Raeli rode around on trams for an hour or more. Score all around!

I had arranged to have coffee with Marianne D-P and Kate Elliott, and was delighted to see Rowena and Trent there too, as I hadn’t managed to spend much time hanging out with any of them. We chatted, Jem was adorable (ish), and Trent was a complete gentleman about sourcing anything the little lady needed, including bananas. My baby is indeed a banana fiend. Other lovely people joined us throughout the morning, and we stayed rather late.

After that it was time for one more quick go around of the dealer’s room, and I remembered at the last minute that I needed to get hold of one of the Classic SF books Aurealis put out this year – yes, the one by the female writer! AKA Catherine Spence. Raeli fell in love with a handmade furry monster, and while the price was far higher than I would normally pay for a child’s toy, she had been most excellent this week, and it was such a stylish thing to desire, I couldn’t resist. She chose hers very carefully, and dubbed him ‘Fluffy Thing’. He is now apparently a member of our family. Within seconds of her acquiring it, her new friend Little Miss Girl Genius (daughter of the Foglios) had convinced them to buy her one too. Now that’s upselling!

My one panel on Monday was on Reviewing YA and while I did really enjoy the discussion we ended up having, I understand from online reaction and discussions later with audience members that some people were very unhappy with it, felt it had been derailed by the one male participant, and even walked out. All I can say is that I’m really sorry they had that that experience. It felt like quite a productive if at times going-off-on tangents discussion to me, but it may be that I felt as if it had avoided derailment only because of my trainwreck experience on Saturday.

I would like to add that I do think it’s really important that online discussions have empowered women and given them the language to express what is going on when, for instance, the one male member of a discussion panel talks more than the women, resists moderation by a woman, and actively pushes the conversation into his preferred areas without consultation, and so on. It was really interesting to me to read tweets and blog responses afterwards, and I think – much like Nelly discussing QandA in this week’s Boxcutters – that kind of real time interaction provides greater accountability, which is the best way to enact change and make conventions more of a shared experience.

I also think that part of the problem with that particular panel was the format whereby each panellist gets to talk on THEIR pet subject for a lengthy time. I really don’t think this is ever a good idea at conventions, as it doesn’t matter how interesting it is, having one person talk for a long time is not a good habit to get into, and doesn’t make for the best audience experience. I would make an exception for academic panels, but even then, only selectively.

The panel I was sorriest to miss out on was John from Boxcutters talking about Outland, his new geeky SF sitcom which is coming to the ABC later this year. Getting to hang out with he, Rob Shearman, Mondy & Scottish Liz for a couple of hours after the dealer’s room closed, though, more than made up for it. Especially since this was one of the rare events where my whole family got to participate in the socialising.

Rob at least got several chances to impress Jemima with his ‘wubble wubble’ face – apparently Nick Briggs’ son loves it, but Jem was all “I am so judging you.” later she may have warmed up to him, once she saw he was such a hit with Raeli. Okay, FINE, there was smiling and giggling. What can I say, my girls like to be entertained by funny men with beards.

After that the girls started to get fidgetty, so it was time to Leave The Building. We met up with the dealer’s room survivors and Trent, and all meandered back to collapse in our apartment. Rob and the others had promised to come by later but never made it – I suspect they actually NEVER MOVED from that cafe in the twelve hours that followed. But we got to hang out, relax, put the baby down for a nap, and generally de-con. Later, we ordered in bento boxes, and even splashed out on a bit of luxury LEMONADE. Our esteemed producer suggested we do our final Galactic Suburbia that evening, but we were basically too fragged to think about it.

And you know, everyone left, one by one, as they do at conventions. So sad.

Once the convention was over, that meant our holiday technically started! On Tuesday morning, Alisa & Alex came by one last time for some fierce back to back Galactic Suburbia recording. After that, it was TV on and pyjamas for the rest of the day, watching Australia finally get a government. Good thing that hadn’t happened on Friday or anything, or I would totally have missed it.

Can I just say how much I appreciate digital tv after a week with a tv that only had the terrestrial channels plus a couple of cable movie channels? I can get movies on the iPad, what I need the TV to do is pause, rewind and, you know, 24 hour CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING! How did people survive before ABC 2? I realise this is a very privileged viewpoint, but it actually felt quite shocking to have long periods of the day when there was no children’s programming at all, namely from 10am to 3pm. Especially as those were largely the hours that one or both parents were stuck in the hotel room with Raeli, while the baby had her nap? Raeli in particular never got used to not being able to rewind and rewatch the tv show she liked. Ah, my lovely tech-spoiled daughter.

So yes, it was all election, order-in noodles (oh, I wouldn’t give up my fresh air and clean tapwater for it, but how I long to live somewhere that delivers Japanese/Chinese food) and a few marathon sessions of Angry Birds, the iPad game Raeli and I are now both addicted to. The whole thing would have been a lovely mellow post con comedown were it not for the enraging building works going on in the room next to MY SLEEPING BABY. Having had such a great experience with Riverview Apartments up to that point, I was furious that they were doing this to us. I’m talking about loud, reverberating power drilling in the room right next door, on and off through the whole day. We had not been consulted to see if, for instance, we were the kind of people likely to be out sightseeing all day during our mid-week stay, or if we were the kind of people who were necessarily confined to our room because of baby naps.

After several phone calls etc. and coming close to actually moving rooms, something we didn’t want to do for the last 24 hours of our stay, the compromise was giving us access to another suite for when the noise was too loud. To their credit they did work hard to make it up to us, but I was so cross about the whole thing it really did put a dampener on the end of our stay.

Then on our final day, we took the girls to the aquarium, and saw PENGUINS omg before eventually wending our weary way to the airport. We got to play in business class thanks to an excess of frequent flyer points, which was lots of fun, even if we didn’t quite think through how long it would take to move two children through an airport from there to our flight once it was called. Juggling Jem on the plane was hard work. My honey did his best to ensure I got a break from her, putting me across the aisle from he and the kids and strapping the baby to himself for take off and landing, but she wouldn’t have anything but Mummymummymummy for the rest of the (thankfully short) flight and I ended up with about 30 seconds to eat dinner because of it. Luckily the stewards all thought she was adorable even when she hurled bread rolls all over the cabin.

Now home. Collapsey. A week and a half of school holidays to go, three or four short stories to write, and a book to finish by the end of October.

It really was the awesomest trip ever, kids and all. But we won’t be doing it again for a while. I’ve officially bought my membership for Swancon, and plan to share a room with Random Alex. Leaving family behind. Gulp.

Live from Aussiecon4, speaking from the entirely unsuburban wasteland of downtown Melbourne, Alisa, Alex and Tansy faced an audience of real people, and managed to keep their chatter to a 50 minute podcast. SHOCK. Some awards news, Worldcon gossip, what we are reading and our pet topic: female heroes in SF & Fantasy.

News

World Fantasy Nominations
Sir Julius Vogel Awards Winners
European SF Society Awards
Fave bits of Aussiecon4 so far.

What have we been reading/listening to?

Alex: Beastly Bride, ed. Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; Legends of Australian Fantasy, ed. Jonathan Strahan and Jack Dann; Secret Feminist Cabal, Helen Merrick;
Tansy: Shades of Milk & Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal; The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins; Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor
Alisa: Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson.

Pet Subject: Female heroes in SF/F

As ever, please send feedback to galacticsuburbia@gmail.com or to our Twitter account @galacticsuburbs. We’d especially love to hear your response to our “live” episode, or your highlights from Aussiecon.

Over the next week we’ll be putting up a series of mini-eps from the convention, including our post-Ditmars round up, our post-Hugos round up, a omg-the-convention-is-over round up, and an interview between Alex and Phil & Kaja Foglio of Girl Genius fame. Was Jake Flinthart correct to accuse her of giggling? Find out!

On a personal note, thanks to everyone who came to the panel, or talked to us at the con about Galactic Suburbia. We were blown away by how many people have listened to us, bought books we recced, and wanted to say hi. Extra special mention to Celia, who apparently DID have an awesome Worldcon, and to the woman who recognised Alisa & Alex gossiping in the row behind her at the Hugos, because SHE KNEW WHAT THEIR VOICES SOUNDED LIKE.

Classic.

Typingn on the iPad, which is an odd experience – I miss my laptop like a sucking hole in my chest. Next time I do a con I am totally leaving my children behind and taking my laptop.

Not that the iPad has not been awesome to us this trip, providing children’s entertainment, instant 3G access to internety stuff so we don’t have to rely on the super expensive rates everyone else is complaining about, and so on. I am desperately regretting my refusal to upgrade my phone, as I do miss twitter rather a lot, actually. I suppose it’s good for me.

We arrived Wednesday evening and before even coming to the hotel, landed on Random Alex and her husband for delicious snack and a catch up with friends Alisa, Tehani, Kathryn & Jonathan Strahan plus significant others, etc. Raeli took an instant shine to J’s girls, which was to be a theme of the convention. She has been making small female friends constantly!

The Riverside apartments are lovely, with a view of the south bank which light up with gushing flames every hour. Raeli was delighted with the trains rushing by far below us. It turned out we were much closer to the con centre than we had dreaded, and the promised storm has not yet made the walk untenable.

Thursday began with the setting up of the dealer’s room, and was especially memorable for the grand opening of the box of Glitter Rose hardbacks, direct from the printer, which turned out to be perfect and pink rather than blue, and actually having pages rather than just being composed from bubblegum wrappers and string, which I suspect was one of GJ’s many nightmares. I’ve heard so much buzz about this book at the con, how pretty is is, and how excited people are about it, so hooray. With nine books on display the biggest problem at TPP was how to stack them all up on the table without it collapsing.

Other notable dealers room antics were provided by Raeli, who befriended a certain junior member of the Girl Genius family, and spent what seemed like hours playing hide and seek with her under tables. I still have not as of Sunday morning actually looked at all the stalls in the dealer’s room. It’s always so busy and has been a fantastic hub to the convention.

I spent several hours in an ebook information afternoon for Harper Voyager authors which was very enlightening. It seems as if they, as with many other Australian publishers, are now rushing headlong into embracing the ebook revolution. It will be very interesting to see how this all eventuates. The future is here! It was also a great chance to catch up with Voyager authors and staff I knew and many I didn’t. Plus there was exquisite tiny food on offer, which I am still raving about days later because omg, tiny food!

I missed Helen Merrick’s book launch, which was sad but inevitable, and then went out for dinner withTerri, Tehani, Alex, and the redoubtable Flintharts – Dirk has brought his Elder Son along for I think his first real con experience, at the age of ten, which is many kinds of awesome. The best bit was young Jake and Alex competing for who loves Girl Genius more, and who was more excited at discovering the Foglios here at the con.

Friday I had actual programming to worry about. We started the day with the “live” Galactic Suburbia panel which went great. We had far more people there than we had expected, and it is hilarious how many have congratulated us for keeping it under 50 minutes, thereby proving how week they know the show. One of the most awesome things about this con is in fact how many people have talked to me about Galactic Suburbia! The recording has come out week, though Jem was a bit too authentic and had to be taken out, while Raeli played the perfect child and sat beside me one the stage, patiently joining the dots on the official presenter notepads, and eating sweets out of the jar.

I took Jem to Kaaron and Angela’s book launch after that, which may at this point be the only programming I’ve attended as an audience member. Not deliberately, as there are so many panels I wanted to see, but I’m just so busy!

Then it was a panel on non traditional publishing in YA, which was notable at first because the room had originally been scheduled for something with China Mieville in it, and when we announced we were not China Mievile, all but two people walked out! The next person who walked in seemed quite alarmed to be sternly informed that we were not China Mieville, as she had actually come to see us!

This was the panel of which I had been most worried about not having much to say, as all my experience with non traditional publishing forms had little to do with YA, but luckily this was the case for most of the panelists, so we carried on quite nicely and talked about Cat Valente a lot. I later discovered that the panelist who actually is starting a YA ezine had been inspired by Shiny, which was very cool.

Having left my copy of Power and Majesty back in the apartment, I had to quickly buy a copy of it in the dealer’s room and picked up a copy of Blameless at the same time. My reading went well, I think, and I was very pleased afterwards to discover that Mondy and Scottish Liz were in the audience. I presented Liz with the book on the grounds that my bag was heavy, and there need to be more copies of my book in Scotland. Maybe if I send one, the rest will follow!

After that, Alisa and Alex and I frocked up in the secret baby change room and prepared for the evening events. First the Voyager 15th anniversary party which was mighty and grand, involving coat checks and more tiny food and purple daiquiris. Possibly we lost cool points for squealing every time my book flashed up on the big screen (other people’s books were up there sometimes too) but it was great fun and there was much mingling, circulating and of course gossiping.

It was sad to tear ourselves away from that, but there was the Ditmars to go to, and so we took out frock age elsewhere. I won’t go into the specifics of the Ditmar ceremony here because we recorded a Galactic Suburbia mini ep about it, and you can listen next week!

The night was still not over. We returned to Terri and Tehani’s apartment for a mellow gathering which was a lovely way for me to chat and socialize, knowing I was only a 30 second lift ride from my baby, should she wake up. I got to spend some quality time chatting with Rob Shearman which almost made up for missing the con at which everyone else got to make friends with him!

And now I think I am caught up, though obviously I have missed a million people and details. Such as the time I was at the TPP stall and met both Rob Shearman and John from Boxcutters in the space of 30 seconds, and my head exploded from fansquee. Or when I met Paul Cornell and he told me that he reads my blog!!! Hopefully he won’t read this bit.

Did I mention that today is the Doctor Who panel I am on? Eeeeeee! This is really a fantastic Worldcon. I am so glad I came.

My morning panel, on the plight of the female superhero, was a sadly disappointing experience. I had been desperately looking forward to talking about this topic with Karen Healey, one of fantastic writers behind the Girlwonder.org project. Unfortunately the male member of the panel had not expected to have a conversation involving feminism, and the institutionalized sexism in the comics industry and all that sort of thing, which meant that we ended up in a frustrating argument about what the panel topic meant for most of the hour. It was a shame that we got derailed so badly and were not able to properly address the topic, and an even greater shame that no one had thought to bring the feminist bingo card as a power point graphic, to save time. We didn’t know we would need it!

Luckily there was some pro feminist awesomeness to redeem the day. I spent the afternoon chatting with Helen Merrick and a veritable cabal of academic women while Raeli had a playdate with Helen’s daughter. I then walked back over to the convention centre and got to sit down with Marianne and Maxine for fifteen lovely minutes, before going over to the green room to meet some of my fellow panelists.

Unlike this morning’s panel, Feminism in Fantasy was exactly as a feminist panel should be. Moderator Delia Sherman made it very clear right from the start that we all accepted the premise that fantasy has historically been a genre in which women got the short end of the stick, and no one argued. Hooray!

With Gail Carriger, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Catherynne Valente and Glenda Larke talking about feminism in their writing, I would have already considered this panel a must see of any convention. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be sitting up there with them, listening to what they had to say and contributing my own thoughts and experiences. I had so much lovely feedback from the audience afterwards, and the whole thing was a pleasure.

Then I got to hurry back from the con centre to record a quick (ha!) Galactic Suburbia extra credit podcast with Alisa and Alex before returning to eat sushi and actually read bedtime stories to my daughters. Yes, yes, I still owe you all the first two days. I’ll get to it. Tomorrow we Hugo!!!

I know from long experience that the first two days of a long con feel like they’ve lasted a thousand years and you’ve been there forever, meeting people and caught up in the whirl, and then you blink and it’s Monday. So we must be nearly home, right?

Noooo so much more con to be had! Random Alex and I have been exchanging fangirly confessions of our biggest OMGLOOKWHOTHATIS moments, which seems to be a theme of this convention. When I start trying to think of listing all the amazing things I have done or witnessed in the last 2 days, and all the very awesome people I have got to have actual in person conversations with, my head comes close to exploding.

Don’t be jealous, my sweet Internet. All my lovely imaginary friends will have returned to their respective foreign climes by Tuesday and then I will be all yours again. And there will be a con report, I promise. With words and everything.

Tomorrow I get to talk about super heroines with Karen Healey, and feminism with Glenda Larke, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cat Valente, Gail Carriger and Delia Sherman. Does life get much better?

Ps: there were purple drinks!

Which means of course we have spent the last four days in a constant state of packing!

Not actually packing the whole time, of course, but somewhere between beginning and ending the process. We’re still there!

Amazingly, we seem to have been able to compress clothes, entertainment and other necessities for 2 adults and 2 children into 2 suitcases, 1 handbag, 1 kid’s backpack, 1 iPad bag & 1 nappy bag (spot the carry-on luggage) with possibly one extra tote bag to hold a baby pouch & kids carseat.

That’s a whole lot of stuff.

The good thing about fretting so much about how we were going to manage this trip for oh, most of the last year, is that we seem to have got to the point of leaving all that behind us and just being all wheeeee anticipatory. Which usually I don’t get until we’re in the car on the way to the airport.

Reader, there is nothing better in the world than that feeling of getting on the plane and knowing it’s too late to go back for whatever it is you forgot. As long as that thing isn’t essential medicine or your iPod.

My travel reading: Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson, The Uncrowned King by Rowena Cory Daniells, the latest Doctor Who Magazine and, should I actually get my hands on the iPad, Diana Comet & Other Improbable Stories.

My travel listening: the latest episodes of Boxcutters, Up For Grabs, and from Big Finish: City of Spires (6th Doctor and Jamie!), Home Truths (Sara Kingdom!) and the last two Tom Baker Hornet’s Nest plays. I also had Jubilee by Robert Shearman but totally listened to that already while packing.

Yes, Melbourne is only a 50 minute flight away and I’ll probably spend most of that wrangling children. What of it?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee almost there! People are arriving in Melbourne already, and I almost gnawed my hands off with jealousy yesterday as the ROR gang met up without me. This is my first post-Twitter trip, and so far I LIKE IT. It will also be our first trip with the iPad which enables access to gmail, googledocs and tweetdeck. Ahhh living in the future. Isn’t it going to be fabulous, until we run out of fossil fuels?

Katniss is an extraordinary heroine. At sixteen, she lives in great poverty and is the protector and food-gatherer for her family. When her beloved little sister Prim is called up to the Hunger Games, Katniss does not hesitate to take her place. Joining her is Peeta, the son of the local baker, a boy who once showed kindness to Katniss when she was starving. The two of them go through the pre-preparations in the Capitol, all the while knowing that they will soon have to fight not only the other contestants, but also each other.

If she is going to survive, Katniss has to be ruthless, she has to be smart, and she has to be very careful who she trusts.

The tagline on this edition of the book is ’strategy is everything,’ and it’s this that really lifts the book into being a truly great story. Step by step, we follow Katniss into darkness, through thirst and starvation and the quite brutal reality of what she has to do. The combination of reality television with gladiatorial/deadly combat is hardly a new concept in science fiction – indeed, it was around long before reality television itself was established – and yet this feels fresh and authentic, with a cast of characters who are drawn vividly even when they only make brief appearances in the narrative.

As well as being a great example of YA dystopian fiction, The Hunger Games also fits into the tradition of science fiction about young people (usually young men) going to war. I was reminded of Ender’s Game and Starship Troopers in the way it deals with the theme of teenage soldiers, which is effectively what the “tributes” are. There are also some strong class themes here, as we are shown that this world which endorses such a cruel practice is also built on the backs of its workers, and has no facility for caring for those who cannot work. District 12, which produced Katniss and Peeta, is the least privileged of the districts, revolving as it does around the dangerous mine work which often leaves families fatherless. The big difference between Katniss and Peeta is one of class – while they both come from the poorest sector, he has never actually gone hungry, and both his parents are living, which means there seems to be a softness to him that contrasts with her hardness. This carries through the whole book, as they make different choices and react to situations differently based on that essential difference.

We learn that the richer districts have “career” tributes, who are trained to be vicious enough to win in the arena, while the poorer ones have to send along whoever is picked. The game is set up to benefit thoughtful, strategic tributes, though, and this is where Katniss comes into her own. It’s her very awareness of the game and how it works that is most compelling about the story – just being a good killer isn’t enough, you have to be entertaining with it. The more entertainment you provide to the viewers, the more likely you are to collect sponsors who will aid you in key ways, by providing medicine, weapons or other supplies. And of course, if a day goes by without any interesting deaths, then the game itself turns against the tributes, throwing calculated challenges or threats in to endanger them, or force them into the open.

Hunger is a theme never far from the surface. While it’s never explained why the Hunger Games are named so, it’s easy to guess why. The tributes are put into a specially-designed terrain where finding water and food is as important a part of the game as being prepared to fight and kill each other – survival in all senses of the word. While on the surface you can look at this world and ask how any society would allow this kind of atrocity to go on in the name of entertainment, it’s also a reminder that the Hunger Games are in fact only one (utterly immoral) step away from the reality tv that has become so entrenched in our culture over the last decade. Not only shows such as Survivor which are calculated to push people to the absolute limit, but children’s versions of the same! Katniss is constantly thinking about food, because she has grown up in a world where she only eats if she hunts or gathers the food herself. The contrasts between the hard-won meals at home, the importance of bread and Peeta’s family bakery, with the rich, privileged food of the Capitol, brings this home to us long before we see her back in the wild, surrounded not only by physical dangers from her fellow tributes, but also trying to keep her body alive and healthy.

I did spend a bit of this pacy read wondering where the next two novels were going to come from – how, if there is only one Hunger Games, could there be two sequels? I’m left not quite the wiser at the end of this one – I can see why the author wanted to continue the story, as the climax is huge and there obviously have to be ramifications, but I don’t yet see how she’s going to do it. Which is why I want book 2 NOW.

For those people who have been wondering why there isn’t any science fiction in amongst all that super popular YA fantasy? It’s right here. The Hunger Games explores all manner of science fiction themes, in a technologically advanced world, and teams these science fictional ideas with one hell of an emotional punch. This is YA at its best – a unique female lead character, a host of other interesting characters, incredible challenges that see the character pushed to her physical and emotional limit, and intimately high stakes from beginning to end. The romance is integral to the story, but only one plot thread among many. For Katniss at least, romance is far less important than staying alive, and her methodical, survivalist mind categorises it as just another event made up of strategy and action. I can see why these books have become the new must-read teen sensation, and the fact that it is an intelligent, challenging novel about a scary dystopian future instead of sexy vampire lurve is to the credit of those teens. Yay for smart books!

So yes, assuming I get more than five minutes to myself each day and that these five minutes correspond to me getting to the front of the family iPad queue, there will be blogging.

Ooh, I wonder if they’ll let me take it to the Hugos…

Probably not since this is where the bedtime stories live.

That, and I’ve been starting to think of the actual practicalities of going to Swancon next year on my own…

Anyway, the post is great but the comments are even better. I am delighted to hear so many women (and some men) being vocal about having “non-traditional” family and work arrangements, about the negotiations that go with balancing domestic and paid and family work, and acknowledging just how hard all this stuff is, even with partners who are pro-feminist and supportive.

Some other links that caught my eye over the last few days include Kate Elliott on Authoral Intent in which she sensibly lays out the role of the reader vs. the role of the writer in fiction, in a post which has sparked off some great recent conversations. I particularly enjoyed Sarah Rees Brennan’s response on Twitter a few days ago, where she laid out the various “stories” people read in her Demon series, depending on their priorities as a reader.

It reminded me very much of a dialogue that went around the blogs earlier in the year, about how the reader’s default vision of who characters are and what they look like can often outweigh not only the author’s intent, but the author’s own words. This is particularly the case where characters are often assumed to be white unless the author beats their non-whiteness over the heads of the readers – but I’m sure there are lots of other examples of this happening!

The “women authors speak out about male privilege in literary reviews” story continues to spread, with Jezebel doing a piece on it. Nicola Griffith weighs in with a post about Books and Girl Cooties, discussing how her own work has been packaged and marketed.

And finally, my mother Jilli made a rare appearance on the blogosphere this week, showing off her garden as part of the World Kitchen Garden Day held in the little town of Cygnet last weekend. Checkout her homemade milestone, a replica of the one that sits outside her home town in Lancashire, only with a lot more miles on the clock.